OUR STRANGE NEW WORLD

(In this strange  new world) Hours before the government did its latest u-turn in a long series of u-turns, telling people to work from home wherever possible, I was doing what turned out to be the contrarian thing.  Commuting to the office for possibly the last time until well into the new year.  I had things to collect and a desk to clear.  When some semblance of the old normal returns, probably when reliable vaccines are available, I will no longer have a desk I call my home.  I will be a hot-desker, probably going into the office once or twice a week at most. I chose to go early, leaving the house at 05:45 for a tram on the airport line shortly after 06:00.  Prior to lockdown, my commute was something of a toxic affair and I’ve long suspected I’ve already had a dose of you-know-what.  The airport line goes by several schools, a large hospital, a major Amazon fulfilment centre and culminates at Britain’s third largest international airport....

(In which I ponder its future) A solitary visit to the office, early June left me in a somewhat sombre mood.  We've had the current office for over three years and, by any measure, this is a good office.  Once it was clear we had to make the move form our rather run down old office, a great deal of effort went into locating the new office and then designing the form and function of the place.  Not perfect and certainly not funky but nevertheless a pleasant, modern and productive place where, unlike the old office (pictured below in its sad, final weeks), I'm not the snot monster several days in a month. I can't speak for my employer's thinking, but what once looked like temporary changes, brought about by the pandemic, now has me contemplating the future of office spaces and work in general.  Since March we've worked from home with no apparent difference in productivity.  Will the old order re-assert itself, post pandemic? Of course, there is both a human and ec...